My dog has laid his head on my stomach for all the time I have had cancer.  He frequently leans his head on my shoulder and puts his paw on my body.  I am sure he knows.  Whereas having had a scan for womb cancer and biopsy for cervical cancer. before my hysterectomy I was told there was no problem ascit was only 1A.  After the op I was told it was 2B and I have a massive tumour in my cervix.  The surgeon told me that scans were notoriously unreliable.

Perhaps we should have an army of labradors!

That's a really interesting topic Graham, thanks a lot for starting it!

I am sure our animal-loving community will very much enjoy reading about all this. Pauline, your dog sounds incredible too and is very loving from your description. Who else has a dog here on the forum and how special is your relationship? What amazing things do your dogs do?

Our four-legged friends are capable of pretty amazing things. Read for example this story of a dog that found his/her owner's melanoma. Our Science Blog here  'Can Dogs Detect the Smell of Cancer?' examines this question in great detail. I think you will find it a very interesting read!

And finally, you will never look at a pigeon in the same way after reading this.

Lucie

This is a lovely thread for we dog lovers! My Border Collie, Paddy is such a joy! I know it's unhygienic, but I confess to letting him sleep on a rug on my bed! (Partner and I have separate beds as I tend  to be an insomniac!) and Paddy doesn't snore or pull the covers off me! 

As for the using dogs to detect Cancer, I've seen various things on TV and in magazines about dogs 'nuzzling' or 'pawing' at their owners in a particular place and Cancer being detected and diagnosed.

'Too much information warning!' Obviously I know I have bowel Cancer, but Paddy often has a cheeky sniff  though I do push him away rather smartly! But he doesn't do this to anyone else! Wonder if he knows? 

Hope this isn't an offensive post. Xx

Interesting Lucie that the results in the paper I linked to were so much better than the results in the ones on the blog - I wonder if the breed of dog or just the individual animal made the difference. I'd guess some sorts of cancer are better candidates than others too

Meerkat@65, it's not at all an offensive post - it's a lovely message which shows the strong bond that exists between Paddy and you. Great sense of smell he has that Paddy!

Graham, you ask an interesting question and we tried to find out more about that. According to Kat in our science team who wrote the blog post about the dog studies, different studies can give different results, especially if they're small (which many of the dog studies so far have been). With this kind of research, a lot seems to depend on the training methods and the dogs themselves, and there is a lot of room for variability. We know that the Medical Detection Dogs team in Milton Keynes have just launched a fairly large trial to find out whether dogs can help screen for prostate cancer by sniffing urine, so it will be interesting to see the results of that study when they're published.

Lucie

Hi Graham ..... I and my vet are totally convinced our Jack Russell Alfie knows I am really unwell.  There has never been a time in my life when I haven't owned a dog but I have NEVER had one like Alf and EVERYONE who meets him comments.

He has never been naughty in any way - no chewing, running around etc. We can take him anywhere - he sits with us, never whinges, never moves, is not distracted - and has never been.  He understands what we say and has never been trained - but sits, stays, waits etc.  He cuddles my hubbie by putting a paw on each shoulder but never does that to me - I have got disease one side and a portacath the other. He walks over my hubby on a chair - never touches my tum and senses it is sore so just sits next to me, not on me. If I'm feeling poorly he doesn't leave me - he won't get up until I leave the bedroom. If we go out he watches me constantly - hubby can go off and he could not care - if I do he is frantic that I am out of sight. He pulls on the lead with hubby, not me and I can only saunter. If we have been out it is always me he rushes to greet much to my hubbies annoyance!  Won't bore you with more examples but everyone who knows him is convinced that he is an angel who has been sent to help me through - I know they are right! X

Yes Dogs are an incredible feat of evolution.

Over tens of thousands of years they have become inexorably linked to humans and they "earn their living" by satisying our needs most often for companionship. Consequently they have an amazing ability to read our body language

Have a read of this:

www.canidae.com/.../how-dogs-interpret-human-body-language.html

Now consider how important it is to double blind experiments when testing whether dogs can detect cancer!

If you knew which sample was which there's no way the dog wouldn't pick that up from you!

This introduces a whole new meaning for "I'm waiting for the Lab report" :-)

Let's hope my lab report isn't 'Border' line